About Carlos

Carlos’ career spans 25+ years being of service to SMEs in developing countries. Communicating and conducting interpersonal relationships with senior government officials, bankers, corporate executives, village elders and tribal leaders is a key strength that supports his work performance.

In that time Carlos has also developed skills and expertise in problem solving and in leadership and teamwork, across different cultures.

In the last 4 years Carlos has utilised his skills and experience in curriculum development, course design and in the selection of teaching methodologies while teaching business administration courses at Selkirk College, in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

Click here to learn more

From his initial technical banking training in Calgary and Toronto he gained expertise in financial analysis, credit risk assessment and corporate banking operations. In the City of London after that, Carlos focused on industry analysis, working as a Credit Officer for CIBC.

After receiving his M.A. degree in economics in Ottawa, Carlos worked for one year in the Montreal headquarters of the Royal Bank of Canada, before going on to represent that bank in Mexico for 5 years and in Venezuela for one year.

His time in Mexico coincided with the 1982 debt crisis, and the resulting economic recession and chaos inflicted on the Mexican private sector by the large Peso devaluation.

At that time he honed his skills in financial restructures and negotiating loan documentation with clients in his US$400 million loan portfolio. Moreover, in collaboration with international banks and lawyers from different jurisdictions, Carlos negotiated with senior government officials for changes in government policy to foster the Mexican private sector development.

In Venezuela, Carlos organized the start-up of VAMSA, a private business development services provider. Focused initially on SMEs in the oil sector in that country, VAMSA went on to expand its business to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile, working in a variety of economic sectors.

Collaborating with local banks in those countries, that period served the development of Carlos’ expertise in providing access to finance services, structuring and placing project-finance transactions, designing and implementing projects, organizational development and supply chain analysis, among others.

From 2008 to 2010, under contract with the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation, Carlos implemented a donor funded Capacity Building and Technical Advisory Program for Tonga’s Ministry of Commerce, Labour and Industries in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

Key achievements in Tonga included collaborating with NZAid in the design and implementation of TBEC, the Tonga Business Enterprise Centre; as well as being active in knowledge transfer activities and carrying out needs assessments, gap analyses, project design, project implementation and project management activities.

In 2013, under contract with Selkirk College in Castlegar BC, Carlos implemented the ADT pilot project, funded by Canada’s National Research Council to enable the use of digital technologies by SMEs in the Columbia Basin in British Columbia, Canada.

Thereafter, he was offered the opportunity to teach at the Selkirk College School of Business. This period has served Carlos to gain experience in curriculum development, course design and selection of teaching methodologies, and in teaching business administration courses in both, face to face and blended modalities to culturally-diverse students.

Interspersed since 2010, Carlos has undertaken several volunteer assignments and implemented capacity development projects for the benefit of three First Nations in Canada, on behalf of CESO-SACO.

Lotus Strategies Ltd. is the vehicle through which Carlos undertakes consulting assignments.